


and they were roommates

by gryvon



Category: Hazard and Somerset Series - Gregory Ashe
Genre: Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, Explicit Language, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:21:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28004568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gryvon/pseuds/gryvon
Summary: How Somers got Hazard to move in together. Set immediately after book 1.
Relationships: Emery Hazard/John-Henry Somerset
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	and they were roommates

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thisissirius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisissirius/gifts).



> I've been binging the series in hopes of writing something more shippy/romantic, but I'm still in book 3 so I haven't gotten to them actually being in a relationship together yet. (Such a slow, slow burn.)

NOVEMBER 2  
WEDNESDAY  
3:03 PM

Incessant pounding on the motel room door pulled Hazard from a deep sleep. For the first time in what felt like weeks, he'd slept uninterrupted—two rounds with Nico plus his still-healing injuries left no room for his usual nightmares—and he'd hoped for at least a few more hours before he had to deal with the rest of the world. The world had other plans.

"I'm coming," he shouted, hoping whoever was on the other side of the door would stop. It worked, so far. The knocking stopped, giving Hazard time to collect himself.

He scrubbed a hand over his face but didn't move. He had to, eventually, at least to find out what jackass was disturbing him, but he didn't want to crawl out of bed just yet. His shoulder was killing him. The pain pills were on the bathroom sink. He needed a shower before he talked to anyone, but whatever asshole was at his door wasn't likely to wait that long. He reeked of sex. His whole room reeked of sex and sweat and other bodily fluids.

Nico was gone. The sheets on the other side of the bed weren't too cold, but that could have just been from Hazard rolling around in his sleep. He wasn't sure whether to count Nico's absence as a good thing or a bad thing. He wasn't sure if the whole whatever he'd started with Nico was a good thing or a bad thing. It was better than brooding over Somers and his wife.

He grumbled as he slid out of bed, wincing as the movement jostled his shoulder. He stopped long enough to pull on yesterday's pants before yanking open the door with an angry, "What?"

Somers stood on the other side, his perpetual grin not even wobbling in the face of Hazard's ire. His short, messy blond hair looked golden in the late afternoon sun. He was grinning like he'd won something, the amusement carrying all the way up to his tide-pool blue eyes. Somers held a drink tray with two coffees and a paper bag from that deli Somers liked. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Somers said as he pushed his way past Hazard.

"Did I say you could come in?" Hazard growled as he shut the door.

Somers set the tray on the little round table in front of the window. He glanced at Hazard, his smile slipping more toward a smirk. "Did I ask?"

Hazard grunted and bent to pick his shirt off the floor. His shoulder immediately protested. Pain hit him like a semi to the face. He swayed on his feet.

Before he could blink, Somers was there, shoving Hazard into a chair with orders to stay put. Hazard didn't protest, mainly because he couldn't. The room was spinning too fast to get a word in edgewise. Somers was back in a flash, pressing a pill into one of Hazard's hands and a glass of water into the other. Hazard knocked them both back, blindly trusting whatever Somers had given him, and leaned back in the chair.

"Are you sure you should be out of the hospital?" Somers asked. "You don't look too good."

"I'm fine," Hazard grit out. His voice cracked at the end. He blamed it on having just woken up.

Somers shot him a look that said he wasn't buying it but all he said was, "Sure." Somers dropped into the chair opposite and slid one of the coffees toward Hazard. He pulled two wrapped sandwiches from the paper bag. One of those ended up in front of Hazard as well.

"I wasn't sure if you'd eaten yet, but I figured you could use either a late lunch or early dinner. Whatever."

Hazard went for the coffee first. It was a little cooler than he normally liked, but after four days of hospital food, it was one of the best things he'd tasted. Somers pointedly nudged the wrapped sandwich closer to Hazard. He took the obvious hint and unwrapped the sandwich. It was the same roast beef and cheddar Somers had made him try the other day. Hazard couldn't say he was disappointed. There was something about the combination that made up for how much he disliked the individual elements on their own.

He was halfway through the sandwich—obviously hungrier than he'd thought—when Somers leaned back in his chair and asked with a wide grin, "How was your date with Nico?"

Hazard choked on a mouthful of roast beef. He coughed into his fist and managed to get the food down his throat instead of spewed across the table. He chugged a healthy swallow of coffee to wash it all down.

"It wasn't a date."

Somers nodded easily, taking his sweet time to chew and swallow before saying, "Sure."

That was it. No follow-up.

Hazard glared. "It wasn't." 

He couldn't tell if he was lying or not. It could have been a date. Sort of. Dinner and a movie usually counted as a date, but dinner came from a food truck and Hazard fell asleep during the movie. A movie he hadn't even wanted to see in the first place. After all the shit he'd dragged Nico through for the case, Nico deserved a little better for a first date. 

Billy definitely wouldn't have counted that as a date. Billy had too much of the theater in him. He wanted their dates to be a production with flowers and fancy clothes and Hazard's attention on Billy and Billy alone.

Nico, despite being a model, didn't seem to care about that. He honestly enjoyed spending time with Hazard, even putting up with the documentaries Hazard liked. Sure, Nico usually napped through them, but it was better than the way Billy always complained and refused to watch with him. Maybe that was the theology major in Nico. Maybe that was just Nico not being a shitheel, unlike Hazard's last two boyfriends.

Somers hummed but didn't challenge Hazard's denial. He tipped his chair back on two legs and looked around the room. His gaze lingered on the clothes scattered on the floor and the rumpled bed sheets. It was obvious what Hazard and Nico had been up to last night. Even without the lingering smell of sex, it was damn obvious. Hazard frowned, his mood darkening as he waited for Somers to comment, but Somers finished his visual circuit and let his gaze rest on Hazard. 

"Sure," Somers said again and went back to his sandwich.

Hazard itched to call Somers on it but after nearly losing Somers, first to his own stupidity, then to Upchurch's gun, Hazard was willing to let this one go. For now. He shoved another bite of sandwich into his mouth to keep from arguing or threatening to punch out Somers's teeth.

"So," Somers said once he'd polished off his sandwich and tossed the crumpled wrapper into the paper bag. "How about you finish up and then we can get you checked out of here?"

Hazard was still chewing so he leveled a look at Somers and raised an eyebrow.

"Come on," Somers said with a wide grin. "Roommates! It's going to be great. Or, at least, better than this shithole. If you don't like living with me, you can find somewhere else to stay, but you'll at least be in a better spot to start looking."

It wasn't worth arguing over. He already knew he was going to accept. He knew he was going to accept last night when he found the note and key Somers left for him.

The Bridal Veil Motor Court was a craphole, but that wasn't even a factor in his decision. He was going to accept because Somers asked, and Hazard was pitiful enough that he'd do anything to be closer to Somers. Even if Somers was straight. Even if Hazard had manipulated Naomi so that Somers's wife would talk to him again. Even if he knew, given the chance, Somers would drop everything to move back with his wife and daughter. Hazard didn't even blame him. He couldn't. His twenty-year crush was nothing compared to the family Somers missed so desperately it drove him to alcoholism.

Instead of saying any of that, Hazard regarded Somers across the shitty motel table and said, "I'm not moving into your shitty apartment without a bed. You don't even have a bed." Somers opened his mouth, but Hazard cut him off. "A mattress on the floor doesn't count. This isn't college. You don't even have a couch."

"Okay," Somers said. "Let's go get you a bed."

Hazard stared. "Now?"

"Why not?" Somers smiled like it was the easiest thing in the world. "There's a decent mattress place not far down the road. I think they sell frames and box springs and all that."

Hazard opened his mouth to argue. Somers was looking at him all eager and happy, like a Golden Retriever overjoyed at being given the slightest scrap of attention. Hazard sighed. He ran a hand through his hair and looked around the room. 

He wasn't a messy person by nature, so there wasn't much he needed to pack. He'd brought the essentials with him—clothes and toiletries mostly, whatever he absolutely needed that would fit in his VW—and left the larger things back in St. Louis with Billy. He'd been planning to rent a truck to bring everything down to Wahredua once he found a place, but there wasn't anything there that he couldn't replace. He'd rather abandon everything he'd left behind than try to negotiate a time to come get his stuff when he could only talk to Billy through fucking Tom. Fuck that.

"I need to shower and change."

"Okay." Somers leaned back in the chair and locked his hands behind his head. "I can wait."

Hazard glared. "No. Go drive around the block or something. Get out."

Somers laughed. "Come on. We're going to be living together. Think of this as a trial run. Besides, you don't have anything I haven't seen before."

Hazard growled. His hands itched to pick Somers up and throw him out of the motel room, but Somers was technically right. Besides, it's not like anything would happen. Not after that disastrous night in Somers's room. Somers was married and Hazard had Nico.

He grabbed clean underwear, pants, and an undershirt from the dresser and stalked into the bathroom. The pain pill was kicking in enough that Hazard didn't pass out getting undressed, though he nearly bit through his lip trying to keep quiet while he peeled off the undershirt he'd slept in. At least his pants were easy. All he had to do was pop the button and let gravity take over.

The shower didn't get as hot as Hazard usually preferred, but even the slightly above lukewarm water eased the pain in his shoulder. He could feel the muscles in his back loosen as he stood under the spray. He took his time shampooing his hair and scrubbing down with a washcloth. If Somers wanted to sit out there and wait, he could damn well wait. There was no way Hazard was going mattress shopping sweaty and covered in fluids from sex.

Drying off was a chore but Hazard grit his teeth and got through it. He hissed through his teeth as he pulled on clean underwear, then pants. He held his undershirt in his hands, trying to think of a way to get it over his head without aggravating his injured shoulder.

Fuck it.

Hazard gathered up his dirty clothes and marched out of the bathroom. He didn't look at Somers. He was aware, in a vague sense, that Somers was staring. It wasn't the first time Somers had stared at Hazard's bare chest—  
—the steam of the locker room, Somers's fingers tracing his collarbone—  
—and it likely wouldn't be the last if they lived together. When they lived together. It was normal. It was a normal thing guys and it didn't mean anything. It was fine.

He pulled open the small closet and shoved his dirty clothes into the laundry bag on the floor. He grabbed the first button-up he saw off a hanger and pulled it on, still facing away from Somers as he did up the buttons. The mirror on the closet door taunted him with glimpses of Somers watching him. Whatever interest there might be in Somers's expression, whatever ache it kindled in Hazard, that died as soon as Hazard caught sight of the partial G carved into his skin.

The scar disappeared behind the fabric of Hazard's shirt and Hazard finally turned to survey the room. There wasn't much to pack. Did that make him boring or efficient? It didn't matter. He didn't need a lot of things, not like Billy had, filling their apartment with souvenirs and trinkets and whatever shiny new thing caught his eye.

The folded clothes in the small motel dresser when straight into his suitcase. Toiletries from the bathroom were wiped dry and packed in their travel bad, which went into the suitcase as well. He pocketed the prescription bottle to avoid it getting misplaced in the shuffle. His dress shirts were pulled off their hangers and carefully folded. He'd have to buy hangars. He doubted Somers even knew how to hang up his clothes. He'd brought his suits on hangars, which made them easy to consolidate into garment bags.

He did another circuit of the motel room. Two suitcases, a duffle bag he'd never unpacked, and three garment bags were laid out on the bed. The sum of his belongings in Wahredua.

He started to gather everything but Somers brushed him aside while Hazard was still slinging the duffel over his uninjured shoulder. "I'll grab those." Somers nudged Hazard aside to grab the suitcases, one in each hand.

Hazard scowled. "I can get those."

"It's fine. I want to help."

"I don't need your help."

Somers grinned and turned toward the door, taking Hazard's suitcases with him. "Too bad."

Hazard growled under his breath and grabbed the garment bags. If this was how Somers planned to behave while they lived together, Hazard was going to put him through a wall.

He followed Somers out the door and paused at the threshold to look back into the room that had been his home for his first week back in Wahredua.

God, this place was a shithole. He shut the door firmly and took the steps down to the parking lot. Somers—the bastard—had put Hazard's suitcases in the back of his own car, likely to keep Hazard from carrying them into Somers's—into their—apartment.

"Dick," he muttered.

If Somers heard him, he chose not to respond. "I'll wait while you check out. We can get you parked at the Crofter's Mark, then I'll drive us mattress hunting."

"I need to pick up a few other things."

Somers nodded easily. "We'll go get you a few other things too."

Hazard stared at Somers for a second, then turned toward the Motor Court office shaking his head. Moving in with Somers was a bad, bad idea. He was never going to be with Somers, not like he wanted. Being Somers's roommate was as close as he could hope for. It would be enough.

It had to be enough.


End file.
